Disclaimer: Please... I don't think so! By the way, some of these imaginary "Associations and Societies" actually, most of them, they belong to Jaclyn Moriarty, author of Feeling Sorry for Celia, the book I'm modeling this story after. They are like our own feelings about ourselves, the ones we beat ourselves up about. I'll probably stick in a few of my own, and will tell you at the end of each part which ones are mine.
Summary: Not really romance (but it could be) more like sweet friendship, but feel free to interpret it however you wish. Enjoy.
Letters and Care Packages
Dear Ronald Weasley,
In reviewing our list of requirements for entrance into our society, we have found you to be an excellent candidate. You possess all of the three qualities desired: You are poor, neglected, and hungry. You are ignored by all in your family, especially your sister. You are hungry because aforementioned sister will not give any of her edible concoctions to you to enjoy, because she is packing them up for YOUR best friend! Since when is Harry Potter the lucky receiver of Ginny's good graces? You really ARE neglected. And you are poor, for you have nothing with which to bargain for food. Again, you are poor, neglected, and hungry. We'd like to add that you are very much so. We like you for it. Please take your time and seriously consider joining our society.
Regards,
The Poor, Neglected, and Hungry Society (formed by the Poor Society, the Neglected Society, and the Hungry Association. . . . We joined forces because the Poor had no means to support itself; the Neglected had no way to run itself, as it was left to its own devices, so it provided the financial means to feed the Poor and the Hungry; the Poor and the Hungry contributed their nurturing natures to help rehabilitate the Neglected; and all are equally and comfortably full)
Ginny!
Can I please have some? Please? Have you forgotten that I'm your brother? Your favorite brother, by the way? PLEASE?
Your favorite (starving) brother,
Ron
P.S. Don't you remember that time I shared my Fizzing Whizbees with you? Be fair!
Ron,
Will you shut up already? No, no, and NO! I'm making this for Harry; you can have food any time, just not this food. Go away.
Ginny
P.S. That's rich coming from you, Ronald. Let me refresh your memory. They were Fizzing Whizbees that you pinched from me in the first place!
Mum!
I'm starving. Ginny won't let me have any of the food she's cooking! What else is there to eat?
Ron
Ron,
I will only tell you once: CEASE YOUR WHINING! When you are an orphan, living with cruel Muggle relatives who only eat grapefruit and cottage cheese, and treated as less than a dog, you may complain. You may wail and whimper as much as you please. Be my guest. Until then, I will have none of it. You can wait for supper just like everyone else.
Love,
Mum
P.S. Didn't you get a letter from Hermione? Why don't you go and occupy your time by answering her? I'm sure she'd love to hear from you.
Ron,
Did we mention how BORING you are? How blasé you are? Because you are. It's the summer holidays, you moron. The time to make trouble, do whatever you want, go wherever you want. And yet you're sitting at home whining for your sister's food, and about to write a letter to your friend, only because your MOTHER told you to. How pathetic. Climb into your fish tank and stay there until you can think of something COOL and FUN to do.
Sincerely,
The Association of Teenagers (Magical or Otherwise)
P.S. And put on your footie pajamas while you're at it, why don't you?
Dear Ron,
Don't pay any attention to their taunts. Hermione and Harry are your best friends and it is your duty to keep in touch. Remember all the good times? How can it be uncool to keep the bond alive?
Love,
The Best Friends Club
P.S. Just pick up your quill and start writing. It doesn't have to be a novel, you know. Just answer her questions. In fact, reread her letter and the words will come naturally.
Dear Ron,
I hope you and Ginny and your family are doing well. I'm not having much of a vacation this year, cooped up at home while my parents are working. At least you have brothers and a sister to talk to.
Have you been all right? You haven't had any bad dreams or relapses or anything? How are your arms? The scars aren't hurting, are they? If anything unusual happens, don't hesitate to tell someone. It would be just awful if anything happened to you . . . or anyone else.
I've got a good head start on my homework, and I figured out that if I work for two hours every day, I should be done by the end of the month. How is yours coming along? I strongly suggest that you don't procrastinate. It would be simply dreadful to start out the new year of school behind everyone else.
Anyway, that was a surprise finding out that Harry and Ginny have been writing each other since the beginning of the summer. What do you think about that? Hopefully, you aren't flying off the handle like you did when Ginny even mentioned Michael Corner's name or even brought up the fact that she actually spoke to him. I think you act rather ridiculously sometimes, just so you know. In my opinion, the idea is very sweet; maybe Ginny will do a better job of helping Harry keep his head on straight than I have, because you and he just don't listen to me. Honestly, I don't understand you . . . or Harry. I think I won't try anymore.
I'm sorry this letter isn't very long. I'm alone right now with nothing to do and no one to talk to, so it's very uneventful. I hope you don't mind if I ask you to write me and tell me everything that's happening over there. But don't forget to be careful with what you write. Anyway, tell your mother hello, and I've put an old calculator watch for your dad in this envelope. I really hope he likes it. Tell him that if he pushes the top button on the left side of the watch, the dial lights up. I also enclosed the instructions on how to set it.
I hope I'll be able to see you all soon.
Love from
Hermione
Dear Ronald,
Are you mental? Are you insane? She ALWAYS signs her letters like that! It doesn't mean anything, and you're a fool to even harbor that idea. You? I hardly think so. So stop blushing. Never in this world or the world to come will any female look at you as more than a freckled boy with too big feet.
The Director,
The Romantics are Hopeless Association
P.S. Go stick your head in a pumpkin pie, okay?
We must contradict the RAHA. She did seem especially concerned about you, didn't she? She asked about you, and not Harry. You can't say that that's always been the case.
Interestedly yours,
The Young Romance Society
Mum,
I'm writing to Hermione right now. I forgot to tell you last time that she says to tell you hello. So, she says hello.
Ron
Ron,
Tell her that I'll send her some meat pies as well. Also, that I hope she has a lovely holiday. Don't forget that your father sends thanks for the strange watch she sent him in her letter. Funny thing with all those buttons.
Mum
Gin,
Hermione hopes you're doing all right. Get this . . . She's already got a headstart on her homework! Can you believe it? We're two and a half weeks into the summer and she's halfway through her homework. Maybe you'd better write her and tell her just exactly what the definition of 'vacation' is. I'm already telling her, so maybe if she gets it from you too, she'll get a clue.
Ron
P.S. Just a little plate of it? For Merlin's sake, Mum said that she's going to send Hermione food as well. What am I to you people? Why is it that my friends get fed, but I don't?
Ron,
At least you know what NOT to do during the summer . . . it's a good thing you're telling your friend, because she does ALL of the wrong things. Not like you . . . the bloke who just doesn't do the wrong things, but can't do the right things either. Stay in your fish tank with your pathetic head in your pumpkin pie.
Yours,
The Association of Teenagers (Magical or Otherwise)
Ron!
Fine. I give up. Come to the kitchen. I'll give you a plate, but please don't ask me for anymore or I really will make you sorry. Besides, I still recall you stealing my strawberries, and I have not received payment for that crime.
Ginny
P.S. She's doing her homework? Honestly, where did we go wrong? Don't worry, I'll tell her. Send her a hug from me until I can write her. Did you write her a long letter, because you should, she's really lonely over there.
Ginny,
You're a lifesaver. I owe you. You've saved me from a bloody three hour stomachache. As for the strawberries . . . Gin, that was practically three weeks ago! Aren't you over that already? That's kind of a long time to hold a grudge.
Ron
P.S. My letter turned out to be at least twice as long as hers. I am such a loser if I have that much free time. But I told her about Lavender and Parvati's predictions about you and your future husband. She'll have a laugh over that one. Those two have seriously gone batty.
Dear Ronald,
Do not mock your classmates' predictions concerning your sister's future. Just because you do not understand the Inner Eye is no reason to deny its irrefutable existence.
Sincerely and clairvoyantly yours,
The Mystical and Mysterious Association of All That Is Mystical and Mysterious
Oh Merlin, Ron,
You told her that? I can just see her face. You know the one. The one that she has when she thinks that people are world-class idiots. But I agree, those two are really crazy. At least we're entertained by them. Can you believe them? Me and that creep? Married happily? And I thought Mad-Eye Moody was kooky. Anyway, my grudge has not been held that long. Remember that time you scribbled over my finger painting when I was six? I still haven't gotten over that.
Ginny
P.S. I didn't know you had enough words in you to write a really long letter! That's really cool. Can I read it before you send it to Hermione?
Ginny
Are you crazy? Of course you can't read it! There is Ginny-sensitive information in there. So I can't let you do that. It's for your own good.
Sorry,
Ron
P.S. Thanks for the food. You've gotten really good at not burning your cooking. It was excellent.
Ron,
Just what do you mean by Ginny-sensitive information? You had better be careful, or you'll be risking the permanent removal of your eyebrows. I hear that isn't a trait that is found very attractive.
Ginny
P.S. Was it really that good? Maybe you should test my cooking more often. I like to hear how wonderful I am. So I'm sorry for yelling at you.
Gin,
Apology accepted. Do you like to hear suggestions? I suggest that you cook desserts every week. Chocolate is a good flavor to include in your recipes. Creamy stuff tastes brilliant too. You might want to think about using Firewhiskey when you cook. Fred and George have got connections. What Mum doesn't know won't hurt her. Besides, we've never seen her drunk before. That could be interesting.
Ron
P.S. I'll tell you once a week that you're wonderful, if you promise to let me sample all the food before you send it to Harry.
Ron,
It's a deal. Firewhiskey, hmm? I never thought about that.
Gin
P.S. I'm not sure if it's a good idea to see Mum drunk. I mean, she's got plenty of temper when she's sober, do you really think it would be safe to get her drunk so that she can't control it?
Gin,
You're right! No making Mum drunk then, we'll eat the stuff ourselves. Fred and George won't mind.
Ron
P.S. We can't tell Hermione about this, but I think Harry's safe if you want to tell him.
Dearest Ickle Ronnie,
D'you mind telling Hermione dear that we have some excellent new products that we'd like some feedback on? She can have a discount if she'd be willing to test them and fill out some questions for us.
F and G
P.S. Tell her they aren't that dangerous. They might make her hair fall out for a couple of weeks and we're not sure that the hair will ever grow back, but other than that, we're pretty sure that they're harmless.
F and G,
I'll send them, but I hope your ears are ready to hear her lectures when she comes to the Burrow. Don't you realize she'll find some way to tie your products into house-elf slavery? Do you really to hear all of that?
Ron
Point taken, little bro. We'll think of a better way to sneak the new products down her throat. Maybe we'll add something that will make her forget to lecture. She is too much like Mum for it to be healthy. You'd better do something about that.
F and G
P.S. Did you tell her how bonkers Dad went over that Muggle watch? It might as well be his best friend, the way he talks to it. And polishes it. And stares at it. Our father is possessed.
Ron,
Pranking someone will put you higher up on the cool list, but you'll need to work really hard. Right now, you are very near the bottom of the uncool register. And we thought it was impossible to have the number two million and eight.
Annoyed,
The Association of Teenagers (Magical or Otherwise)
Author's Note: Hehe. Geopardy at Checkmated asked me in January if I was going to make him wait until Easter for this chapter. Lol. I've never met a psychic before. Anyway, I hope this installment did our Ronald justice. . . . I had a blast writing it! Please review!
Kingmaker: (grins evilly) I know.
To all my other reviewers: All of your words are greatly appreciated, but if I responded to them all, it would be longer than this chapter really is. I love you all! (hugs)
Important Note: This is response to an extremely helpful review at Checkmated. In previous chapters, the Young Romance Society has been very cruel to certain characters instead of supporting budding feelings of affection. This conflicting title for this society was pointed out to me and I want to acknowledge the suggestion to change the name to something that views romance in a negative way. So, as of now, the Young Romance Society in the previous chapters will be changed to The Romantics Are Hopeless Association as seen in this chapter. Also, from this point on, when you see The Young Romance Society, it will be PROMOTING love, not dissing on it. I will try and quickly make those changes and edit the chapters.
Now, as I understand it, I did not have one of these in the last chapter, as Koonelli so kindly reminded me, so sit back, relax, and enjoy another
Random Story from the Author's Archives of Life
Unfortunately, this story does not involve any band geeks of my acquaintance, so I apologize to my good buddy Koonelli in advance. It does, however, briefly outline the long and arduous journey that led me discover that gem called Harry Potter fanfiction. Believe me, it did not start out simple. I wasn't even planning to even care about fanfiction. All I cared about was finding out more about Aaron Lohr. So sue me. So what if he's now like thirty? The dude was hot.
It all started with the Disney trilogy of the Mighty Ducks. I had a strange fascination with the group of ragtag teenage hockey players, which included more than one dishy male. I had watched the movies on t.v., got them at the library, watched them over and over again. Of course, the third movie was one of the best, as Aaron Lohr a.k.a. one of the Bash Brothers was sent to the penalty box and began stripping. So I was like, man, who is that actor? I carefully watched the credits and found out that his name was Aaron Lohr. So then I went online, and typed his name into the Google search and lots of cool sites came up. I also looked up "Mighty Ducks" and found some fansites as well.
Browsing casually through these fansites, I kept seeing links for fanfiction. Being the skeptical person I am, I was like, Okay, that's just creepy. What is this stuff? Of course, I knew what fiction was: made up stories; but I had no idea what fanfiction was, so I clicked on the links, and there you go! I immediately became a fan myself and started writing stories to pair up my favorite characters.
Hah. Not quite. You should've seen my face, my eyebrows going up, up, up as I read. My first reaction: Who are the sad little freaks that spend their time doing this? Second reaction: Huh, this isn't so bad . . . in fact, it's kind of amusing (of course, this was my first impression, but that was before I knew the difference between good and bad fanfiction). Second-and-a-half reaction: It's amusing because it's PATHETIC! Third reaction: I wonder if there's anymore of this stuff out there? Reaction that did not want to reveal itself: Not that I really care to read anymore of this crud. I mean, who in their right mind sits at a computer and spends all day writing fake stuff about people that have already been invented? So after I had found out all I cared to know about Aaron Lohr, mostly, I completely forgot about fanfiction. For a few weeks anyway.
I was on the Net and it crossed my mind that I had wanted to find more about these crazy stories based on movies; I had not realized that there were other genres as well, so I typed in "Mighty Ducks fanfiction." This blue link flashed up at the top of the page: fanfiction . net. Me: What the hey? They have a whole friggin' website for this stuff? I was rather appalled. Seriously, I was shocked. But I gamely clicked the link, clicked on Movies, and scrolled down, looking suspiciously at everything. So then I found The Mighty Ducks, and clicked on it, not knowing what I would find. Imagine my horror when I found out there were three or four bloody columns of movies for which fanfiction stories were written. And this wasn't the only genre. I was actually disgusted. But I read some stories . . . and read some more . . . and skipped dinner to read some more . . . this was May of freshman year and summer was almost here and I really didn't have homework. I kinda became fond of these nerdy stories, and looked forward to reading a little almost every day. Sad, sad little me. But then the summer came, and I forgot about fanfiction once again for about two months. During these months was when that "Harry Potter's going to marry whom?" incident happened at my aunt's baby shower, and I unashamedly mocked all my elders. I believe that story is in chapter three or so.
So now I bet you're thinking that I finally found HP fanfiction and became obsessed with it. Nope. Uh-uh. Not yet. My brother was in choir that year and his class watched Newsies. Me: Who cares? My mother had given me bad reviews on that movie, so when my brother brought that movie home to share, I watched it with him in a, yes, skeptical manner. Whaddaya know? I loved it! And not just because I found out that Aaron Lohr was in it and was barechested, and could do back handsprings . . . the whole film was filled with gorgeous boys! So back to the computer, I went to find out more about this movie. And that link for fanfiction kept showing itself! Me: There's fanfiction for Newsies too? Forgetting how much I had liked reading Mighty Ducks fanfiction, I immediately was shocked at the number of people who wrote these ridiculous stories. But I remembered that website, and so I went back fanfiction . net, went to Movies, and scrolled down, looking to see whether Newsies was in that category. Sure enough, there it was. I sat there for a minute just staring at it, wondering if this really was worth my time. So I clicked, gaped at the number of stories, and started reading . . . and reading . . . and reading. I was introduced to numerous Mary-Sues. I researched Mary-Sues because I had absolutely no inkling as to what they were. I became familiar with them. I slowly became critical of the stories, which is why I stopped reading Mighty Ducks fanfiction. I knew all of the silly abbreviations for things. It became an obsession to read Newsies fanfiction. Then school started again, and I forgot all about it.
One afternoon, I was idly browsing the internet, and the idea popped into my head to go back to fanfiction . net to see if there were anymore new stories in the Newsies category. I got there and realized that I was bored with it, and didn't care to read anymore. So I was kind of skeptical of trying another category, but I went into the Books genre, and while I was scanning the columns, the words Harry Potter caught my eye. I knew I should've gotten over being surprised, but I couldn't help it when I got startled at the fact that people wrote fanfiction for that book. And a lot too! There were at least a hundred thousand stories! So I decided to try that one, as it seemed to be the most popular category. And then I found out you could actually narrow stories down to certain characters. That was a shocker to me! One of the first stories I saw before I picked two characters was a Harry/Ginny story, so I chose them first. I don't remember what story I read first, but I can assure you that that was the first pairing I fell in love with. Maybe it was because it made sense, maybe it was because it was the first one I saw, maybe because I innately trust my grandmother . . . who knows, maybe if I had seen Harry/Hermione first, I might be sailing the H.M.S. Pumpkin Pie. Just kidding. I always knew that Ron and Hermione were meant for each other, even before I knew about fanfiction, so no worries. After reading HP fanfics for about four months, I decided to register and start writing. My first story was Through the Owls' Eyes. So there you go. This is how I discovered Harry Potter fanfiction. All you have to worry about is whether or not I'll ever get bored with HP and look for another category. After all, that's how I fell into HP fandom. But I like writing H/G too much and I love reading it as well; so, those of you that are writers, recommend me to good stories, and I think I'll be safe!
So, now that you've had your fill of two stories, please review on the first! The second one was purely for your entertainment. The next time I do one of these, it will be much shorter.
Next chapter:
What did Ron say in that hugely long letter? What Ginny-sensitive information was contained inside?
What were Lavender and Parvati's predictions about Ginny?
Will Hermione's hair fall out?
Hugs to you all!
Review!